Tyndall (the original spelling, also Tyndale, "Tindol",Tyndal, Tindall, Tindal, Tindale, Tindle, Tindell, Tindill, and Tindel) is the name of an English family taken from the land they held as tenants in chief of the Kings of England and Scotland in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries: Tynedale, or the valley of the Tyne, in Northumberland. With origins in the ancient Anglo Saxon nobility of Northumbria, the Royal Scottish House of Dunkeld and the Anglo-Norman nobility, they have contributed courtiers, judges, writers, historians, sailors, airmen, scientists and philosophers to the history of England, Ireland and the new world. Two members of the family were offered, and declined, the throne of Bohemia in the 15th century[2] and one of their number, William Tyndale, was the first modern translator of the Bible into English and one of the most important figures in the evolution of the modern language. The family is spread today throughout the British Isles and the English speaking world.

The first member of the family known by this name was Uchtred, Lord of Tyndale, who married Bethoc Canmore, daughter of Donald III, King of Scots from 1093–1099.[3] His name, the period of his life and his lands and position suggest a kinship with the Anglo SaxonEarls of Northumbria, one of whom was Uchtred the Bold, Earl from 1006 to 1016. These Earls, in turn, were descended from the Saxon Kings of Northumbria. Whilst the Tyndales soon adopted the use of the Norman 'de', this does not necessarily suggest the family was Norman in the male line; the Saxon family of Woolesley, for example, used 'de' throughout this period.[4] Nevertheless, the Tyndales married and integrated into the Norman nobility within the earliest period of their recorded history.

The earliest feudal records indicate that an Adam de Tindale was the feudal Baron of South Tyne-dale and of Langeley/Langley Castle, both in the county of Northumberland. The pipe rolls are written in Latin, which explains the use of 'i' rather than 'y' in the name; there is no 'y' in Latin. The Barony had been held by his father or grandfather by the service of one knight's fee, in the time of Henry I. Considering the dates, his position and territorial designation, it is probable that this Baron was either the son or grandson of Uchtred, Lord of Tyndale and Princess Bethoc of Scotland. Adam was succeeded by his son, Adam, who held the Barony during the reign of Richard I of England, paid 100 pounds for his relief, with livery of his land, in 1194 and appears to have died in 1224.[5] He left two daughters, who became co-heirs to the Tindale Barony and to Langley Castle. The elder, Philippa, married Adam Nicholas de Bolteby and conveyed to her husband the Barony of South Tyne-dale. It passed through inheritance in the female line to the family of Lucy and, later, to the Earls of Northumberland. The Barony of Langley and its associated manor continue to modern times as an originally feudal Prescriptive Barony (not a Peerage), and an extensive series of baronial and manorial records are maintained in the National Archives (UK).

The second son of the first Baron Adam de Tindale, Robert, settled at Tansover in Northamptonshire in the time of Edward I. Some of the (later) genealogies and secondary sources for the family from this period are written in English and use 'Tyndale', for the reasons posited above.[7] The more contemporary 'Visitation of Essex' uses 'Tyndall', a spelling used below.

The first that is known of the family after their migration to Northamptonshire was the enlargement of their estates through marriage into the Deane family. The Deanes were, from the earliest generations, intimately connected with the Tyndall family. The elder son of Robert de Tyndall of Talsover married the heiress of that family and inherited the lands of Deane, which remained in the family for many generations.[8][9] The Deane arms have been quartered with those of Tyndall ever since and were adopted as the only arms of the Tindal branch of the family from the 17th century (and can be seen, below, under the portrait of Rev Nicolas Tindal).[10]

Subsequent Tyndalls married well, inheriting the estates of Hockwald in Norfolk and Mapplestead Magna in Essex in marriages with heiresses of the de Montford and Fermor families. Several heads of the family were knighted and many appear to have been prominent at court. A William Tyndall was Lancaster Herald under King Edward IV. Sir William Tyndall of Hockwald and Deane was created Knight Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath on 29 November 1489, on the creation of Prince Arthur as Prince of Wales in the reign of Henry VII. He was a Herald of the King, first as Guisne Pursuivant and later as Rouge Dragon.[2]

His son, Sir Thomas Tyndall, was admitted to the Order of the Bath following the coronation of Queen Anne Boleyn. Through marriage to the Felstead family, he became co-heir to the Barony of Scales, the daughter of the last Baron Scales having died without issue. He shared this distinction with the then Earl of Oxford.[11]

It has already been related that, through the Felbriggs, the Tyndalls came to be co-heirs to the Barony of Scales with the Earls of Oxford. However, a more regal dignity descended through Margaret of Teschen when the House of Luxemburg died out with the death of Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia (1368–1437) and Sir William Tyndall became one of the heirs to the elective throne of Bohemia. John Nichols relates that a delegation of Bohemian boyars were sent to England to offer him the throne but that he refused, the Habsburgs succeeding to a throne they held (with one interruption) until 1918.[2]

The most eminent member of the family, William Tyndale (c. 1494 – 1536), was the first translator of the Bible into modern English. His great work was also one of the first vernacular Bibles to be derived from the primary Hebrew and Greek texts. Its effect on the English church was electrifying, leading to thousands of Bibles being smuggled into England; Tyndale's individual contribution to the linguistic development of the modern English language perhaps ranks as second only to that of Shakespeare. Aside from his life work, Tyndale was a prodigious pamphleteer, propounding a Protestant agenda that was significantly more radical than that of his protector, Martin Luther. His radicalism, prodigious output and written battles with Thomas More eventually led to his capture near Antwerp, after which he was burnt at the stake as a heretic. He is regarded as a martyr in the Church of England and his death is commemorated in the Book of Common Prayer.

Born in Gloucestershire, William Tyndale is known to have been the brother of Edward Tyndale of Pull Court, Gloucestershire, receiver to the lands of Lord Berkeley based on the 1533 letter of Bishop Stokesley of London. However, all that can be surmised from data available is that William was related to Richard Tyndale and Tabitha Hitchins of Melksham Court and had brothers John and Edward, the Receiver of Berkley, but most certainly was NOT of the line of Tyndale of Hockwold. (Although Edward Tyndale is recorded in two genealogies as having been the 'brother of Sir William de Tyndall of Deane and Hockwold' but that William died after 1542 so they were in error on the relationship with that William (but suggesting that he was connected to this branch of the family somehow),[15][16] that myth was broken and the suggestion dismissed in "The Memoirs of the extinct family of Chesters of Chicheley" as well as in The Genealogy of the Family of Tyndale (by B. W. Greenfield, 1843) and The Biography of William Tyndale".)[17]

General Ralph Dundas Tindal was born in Deventer on 24 February 1773,[18] of Scottish origin. He died at Zeist on 4 August 1834. He served in the Netherlands military, and in French service. His father had emigrated to Holland and had also served in Dutch service. Whilst in French imperial service, Ralph Dundas Tindal was created Baron de Tindal on 12 April 1813 by the French Emperor Napoleon (Bonaparte). Later he joined Dutch forces and became lieutenant-general in the infantry, and on 8 July 1815, King William I of the Netherlands bestowed a knightly order on him, the Willems-Orde. On 16 September 1815 he was raised in the Dutch nobility, again with the title baron.

The senior branch of the English Tyndall family, last seated at Mapplestead Magna in the 17th century, died out in the direct male line in the 17th century and in the female line over a hundred years later. The senior English branch is thus the Tindal (now Tindal-Carill-Worsley) family, whose history is related in the 1973 volume of Burke's Landed Gentry. This family derived from Rev John Tindal, Rector of Bere Ferris, Devon, in the mid-17th century, said (in the Nichols genealogy) to have been the younger son of Sir John Tyndall of Mapplestead, the brother of Dean Humphrey Tyndall, President of Queens' College, Cambridge.

There is, however, support for the contention that Rev. John was the son of Sir John's elder son Dean.[19] Rev John's migration to Devon (after his studies for Holy Orders) was typical of the many migrations of the Tyndall/Tyndale/Tindal/Tindell family since the late 15th century. The use of 'Tindal' represents a more Latinised usage which was common amongst many literary figures in this era and there is evidence that it was first used by his sons, Matthew (1657–1733), Thomas (1658–1714) and Richard (1659–1697). Matthew had been described as 'Tyndall' when at Oxford University in 1688;[20] two of his brothers, Thomas and Richard, emigrated to Fenwick's Colony in 1674 and his other brother, John, was the father of Rev Nicolas Tindal (see below). .[21] Rev John Tindal married Ann Hals, who was descended from the Fortescue and Clifford families and was the first cousin of Thomas, Lord Clifford, Lord High Treasurer of England to Charles II. Through this connection and those of Diana Pocklington, the wife of Capt George Tindal, RN, Lord Chief Justice Tindal (see below) was descended from Lords Chief Justices Sir William Yelverton and Sir John Fortescue and from Sir Roger Manwood, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer.[22]

Rev Nicolas Tindal. The Tindal arms shown are those of Deane, whom the Tindal/Tyndale family represent, together with the ancient crest of Tyndall

Dr Matthew Tindal (1657–1733), a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life, was an important figure in the early English Enlightenment. Born during the Commonwealth to the above-mentioned Rev John Tindal, he appears to have been an opportunist in his youth, turning to Rome under James II. However, he later wrote the foundation of English deist thought, Christianity as Old as the Creation, later known as the "Deist's Bible". This seminal tract, which had enduring influence on German deism in particular, represented that no true religion could rely on any doctrines that could not be divined through human reason. Thus, Christianity, if a true religion, has no need of revelation to support its dogmas and must be as old as the Creation. His writings provoked scandal and his book was burned by the public hangman, in addition to provoking a number of replies.[23][24]

Statue of Sir Nicolas Tindal

Dr Tindal's nephew, Rev Nicolas Tindal (1687–1774), was the translator and continuer of the History of England by Paul de Rapin. Very few comprehensive histories existed at the time and Tindal wrote a three volume "Continuation", a history of the Kingdom from the reign of James II to that of George II. Something of a controversialist, he was also known for having been defrauded of his uncle's inheritance by Eustace Brugnell, leading to some lines of Alexander Pope. Rector of two livings, Chaplain of Greenwich Hospital and a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford,[25] Tindal was sufficiently prosporous to allow his son, Capt George Tindal RN to settle in Coval Hall, Chelmsford.[26]

Sir Nicolas's second son, Vice Admiral Louis Symonds Tindal (1810–1876), joined the Royal Navy as a boy, in 1825 and had an adventurous, wide-ranging and distinguished career. Promoted lieutenant in 1832, by 1836 he was in the sloop 'Vestal' on the North American station and later the sloop 'Calliope' on the South American station. In 1841 he was in China, where he was present at the Battle of Chuenpi, the storming of Wampea reach and at attacks on Canton. In recognition of his role in these raids, he was promoted commander that year and given command of the sloop 'Pylades', which he brought home from the east in 1843. In 1846 he commanded the brig-sloop 'Grecian' to open the South American station, returning in 1849. He was promoted captain in 1852, rear-admiral in 1868 and vice-admiral in 1874.[29]

Sir Nicolas's youngest brother, Charles, a commander in the Royal Navy, became Governor of the Bank of England in the west of England. His son, Charles Grant Tindal (1823–1914) was a successful cattle breeder, meat processor and landowner. Having started his career on explorations of New South Wales, he leased a cattle station before buying the Ramornie station on the Orana River, near Grafton in NSW. In addition to cattle breeding, he was a highly successful breeder of racehorses, both in Australia and England, where he retained his father's property of Fir Grove, Hampshire. At its peak, Charles's meat processing company slaughtered 35,000 beasts a year and was well established on the English market.

Charles's descendants remain in Australia to this day (although several Australian Tyndalls descend from the Irish branch of the family). One, Wing Cdr Archibald Tindal, who was killed during the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, became the first RAAF airman to be killed on the Australian mainland during World War II. After the war, Carson's Airfield, located approximately 320 km (199 mi) south-east from Darwin, was renamed RAAF Base Tindal in his honour.[30][31]

The current head of the English family is Charles Tindal of Ballyloughan (he does not use 'Carill-Worsley'), son of Group Captain Nicolas Tindal-Carill-Worsley (1911–2006), a bomber pilot during World War II and one of the organisers of the "Great Escape" from Stalag Luft III. His brother, Anthony, son, Matthew and niece and nephew William and Harriet together run Tindal Wines in England and Ireland (www.tindalwine.com, www.tindalwines.co.uk).

A branch of the family settled in Ireland in the Middle Ages, and manuscript genealogical records of these exist in Trinity College Dublin.[40] The family originated in Gloucestershire and were closely related to William Tyndale, the Bible translator. Another William Tyndall is mentioned in the 1659 census as living in Duganstowne, Catherlagh (County Carlow), co-owned by him and a Richard Andrewes as tituladoes. Similarly, a John Tyndall came from Gloucestershire to Ireland during the Wars of Rebellion and had a grant of land confirmed to him in 1668. He married Isabelle de Rinzy of County Wexford.

John Tyndall (1820–1893) from Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland, a staunch Protestant Unionist, was a well-known physicist from Ireland, who discovered the Tyndall effect.[42][43] A relative, another John Tyndall of Newcastle ran a forge, coachmaking and saddlery, in the middle of the 19th century, and his grandson, David P. Tyndall (1890–1970), from Chapelizod, became a prominent Irish businessman in the 20th century, who founded the firm D. Tyndall & Sons, as well as several other companies, and consolidated and modernised the wholesale trade sector, introducing the SPAR chain into Ireland.

Richard Tindall continued as surveyor-general of Fenwick's Colony following the sale of the Salem Tenth to William Penn in 1682.[46] His brother Thomas Tindall was the first purchaser of land in Hopewell, New Jersey and had many children.[47]

First Lieutenant (Air Service) Frank Benjamin Tyndall, United States Army Air Service flew as an Ace Fighter Pilot with 22d Aero Squadron. By direction of the President, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved 9 July 1918 (Bul. No. 43, W.D., 1918), LT. Frank B. Tyndall is cited by the Commanding General, American Expeditionary Forces, for gallantry in action and a Silver Star may be placed upon the ribbon of the Victory Medals awarded him. First Lieutenant Tyndall distinguished himself by gallantry in action while serving with the 22d Aero Squadron, American Expeditionary Forces, in action near Conflans, France, 29 October 1918, in pursuing an enemy Fokker far within the enemy's lines and bringing it down. After the war was over he worked with Boeing on loan from the government as a consultantant and test pilot. During one of his test flights his plane had a mechanical failure and he had to bail out. As a result, he was the second Airman to successfully survive using a parachute. He died 15 July 1930 after the plane he was flying crashed. Ten years later Tyndall Air Force Base was named in his honour. He was survived by his wife Grace Tyndall and his daughter Mary Tyndall.

^These arms, those of Sir William Tyndall of Deane, Cheshire Herald, may only be borne by his lineal descendants; and, undifferenced, by his heir male. (Source: Visitation of Essex (1632) 'Tyndall'). That family also quartered their arms with those of Deane, now borne by the Tindal family (see below, within the illustration of Rev Nicolas Tindal). Image created by Martin Goldstraw, Cheshire Heraldry

^The Nobilities of Europe, by the Marquis de Ruvigny, published by Melville and Company, London, 1910 (page 412).

^The Visitation of Essex of around 1632 records Deane Tyndall as having, amongst other issue, Francis and John. Francis is recorded in the Nichols genealogy and in depositions submitted at the time of a claim to the Barony of Scales in the 19th century as having had daughters whose line died out three generations later. Further support comes from the dates. Rev John married in 1655 yet Francis was born as early as 1614. It is far more likely that Francis was John's brother than his nephew.

^By Anthony Wood in a reference to Tindal/Tyndall taking Anglican communion on 16 June 1688: 'The Life and Times of Anthony Wood', p 264, cited in Lalor, Stephen (Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2006) Matthew Tindal, Freethinker: An Eighteenth-century Assault on Religion, ISBN0-8264-7539-6

^The arms of Rev John and his successors, a fesse dancette gules below three crescents of the last, are the arms of the family of Deane; though his crest, a plume of five ostrich feathers charged with an ermine spot out of a ducal coronet of five oak leaves, is that of the Tyndales of Deane, Hockwald and Mapplestead. The main branch were the heirs general of the Deane family, having inherited Deane in the 13th century, and quartered their arms directly after the Tyndall arms. The adoption of their arms, together with the Tyndall crest, provides strong further evidence of Rev John's descent (in addition to the genealogies in Nichols and the Visitation), notwithstanding the possible inaccuracy of the former (regarding Rev John' brother or father Deane Tyndall).

^[2]Quit Rents and Warrants, History and Genealogy of Fenwick's Colony, page 496.

^Ege, Ralph Pioneers of Old Hopewell (1908), Race & Savidge, Hopewell, New Jersey, pg 13-14. "This Houghton tract was surveyed by Thomas Revell, agent for the West Jersey Society, for Thomas Tindall, on February 27, 1696, and was without doubt the first farm located in the Hopewell Valley. On November 10, 1699, a deed was given by Thomas Revell, agent for 'Ye Honorable The West Jersey Society in England' of the one part, and Thomas Tindall of the other part, for the above tract, the consideration being 'ten pounds per hundred acres,' or fifty cents per acre in US currency, which was the regulation price for all the societies lands of the 30,000 acre tract. The above deed describes the 300 acres (1.2 km2) as a part of the 30,000 acre tract 'lying above ye fialls of ye Delaware.'"